Welcome to my Wide Open Mental Health Clinic here on the High Sierra porch! Just go through that door over there and the nurse will provide your favorite ice-cold medicine for a small fee.

Come back here with your medicine and find a place on one of those benches. I'll guide you through this group therapy session, and I guarantee you will feel better very soon.

Now tell me... What do you think of the view from this porch... Did you know Terlingua is the world's largest open air insane asylum? Yes, and I'm the only mental therapist in this entire borderland region, as far as the eye can see when sitting on this mountain. This is a task no other therapist will do, a fate of unending hardships.

But I'll do it, so let's get started. Do you love your mother? Is there something bothering you? How does that make you feel? I may be able to help you.

My advice is... Live free, take your medicine, and be very, very happy.

Please sign in and leave me a message... Or not. I realize some of my patients prefer anonymity.

This page was last updated: June 15, 2015

Thirty-seven years ago I visited Terlingua with my brother, fell in love with this rugged, resource scarce, hardscrabble, merciless land, and decided to live here for the rest of my life. With no money, no car, no house and no job, it was difficult to even find water. I stayed wherever I could, in caves, in abandoned buildings, in a bus...

I survived most of the time with no steady job as a free man, lots of times that meant sleeping under the stars. I learned to enjoy my freedom, take my medicine like a man, and to be very, very happy.

I work in downtown Terlingua Ghostown at the High Sierra. This is where you will find me, on the porch where I conduct my world famous Open Air Guided Group Therapy Sessions with the many needy patients we find in the Big Bend Area.

In the 1500's most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying: "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs -thick straw- piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof, When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying: "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying: "a thresh hold."

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Dr. Doug presides over another Group Therapy Session on the Porch. Notice the musical accompaniment and the lively conversation sparked by liberal doses of medicine, Dr. Doug's lively and magnetic personality, and the magic of the Chisos Mountains.

There is not an unhappy face in the crowd.

Photo by Kristinna

This cowboy will be back.

He may have left his rock collection, boots, medicine and smokes, but he would never abandon his dog.

Eagle Webula

Locally Cosmic Connections

Dr. Doug

Borderline Mental Therapist

Donate to Dr. Doug's Research

Please help Dr. Doug find the secrets of happiness hidden away in the desert mountains. Medicine is expensive out here, and Dr. Doug uses a lot of it, not only for himself, but also for his many indigent patients. Your generous contribution will ensure continuous Group Therapy Sessions on the Porch are available for the needy.

Send your cash, check or money order to:

Dr. Doug's Mental Health Research Fund

% Douglas Blackmon

HC70 Box 205

Terlingua, TX 79852

Dr. Doug and his patients thank you!

Kristina's Farewell Party

Kristina Blanchard has been miraculously cured of terminal unhappiness and has been released from Dr. Doug's Mental Health Clinic, the world's largest open air mental asylum, to return to her home in upper state New York.

You'd have to slap her to knock that smile off her face, but Dr. Doug does not advise such action. Part of her prescribed therapy was to let out her aggressions using a bullwhip.

Dr. Doug and all the other patients love her and will miss her very much. Farewell Kristina. Dr. Doug is already misty eyed.

This is his great quandry. His miraculous successes return to productive society, his harder cases stay longer and sometimes become locals. But we survive out here.